Ewe coons! It's good you've not lost any birds. Hope you get everything fixed up enough to deter them.Somebody stop the ride, I'm ready to get off
I spent yesterday checking on the outer coop every hour to hour and a half, trying to catch whatever the egg thief is in the act. Well, around 6:30, I went out and as I was walking past the coop (the pens are on the other side of it from the house so I walk past it to get to them), I heard something skitter and run off in the bushes nearby. I walked that way a bit to see if I could spot what it was, and didn't see anything. However, upon turning around to walk back toward the pens, I witnessed a HUGE raccoon coming around the corner of the coop and squeezing underneath.
So I set up the live trap by the corner, got the birds set up inside, and went ahead and locked them in for the night.
The good news is I caught the raccoon. Or A raccoon, presumably the same one as it's also a big one.
The bad news is that while trying to find a way out of the trap, it ripped a huge hole in the siding of the coop next to where the live trap was set.
Best I could do for now is hardware cloth over the opening. I guess I'm replacing siding when I fix the floor, too. This coop had zero problems until I had birds living in it again!!
Meanwhile, I noticed that one of the cockerels among the Easter-hatch babies out in the main coop was acting off yesterday, so I started them on amprolium, just to be safe. Well, he passed away in the night. Poor baby was so young. He was not one of my keepers in that batch, but now the only keeper pullet is acting off, so I'm going to be going out there as much as possible and making sure she's drinking plenty of the amprolium-treated water today. I only got 3 pullets out of the batch of 9, so I definitely don't want to lose any of them!
On the brighter side, I moved the last little Gus baby to the brooder last night, so here's her first picture. She's so small!!
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And here's the whole brood in the brooder I did notice that a couple of them are having a hard time fluffing out properly, so I've got to keep an eye on that as well.
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This pretty little Blue baby hasn't had any trouble fluffing up, though
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Here are the older peeps in the big kid brooder, too. They're very grown up now (at 1 and 2 weeks old, respectively) and don't want my attention anymore, apparently.
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Awwww babies!
I'm looking forward to not hatching anything else till maybe August/September. Will be getting some Spitzhauben eggs and maybe bantam polish and more silver and blue Ameraucana bantam eggs.